


sugar covered poison

by lexiconartist



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fantasy, Gen, [shifty eyes], fairy!chenji, human!jaemin, mayhaps... some spook
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 16:42:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21102668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexiconartist/pseuds/lexiconartist
Summary: The tinkering laugh Jaemin has only (ill-advisedly) grown fonder of echoed against the big flower petal walls around them.“You’re so funny, boy!”“My name is Jaemin.”Chenle laughed again, not too bothered that he’d forgotten again.(or; Chenle likes to feed his friends.)





	sugar covered poison

**Author's Note:**

> title from the elizabeth & the catapult song !

Jaemin choked as Chenle withdrew his finger from his mouth.

“Is it good?” Chenle asked, leaning in far too close to Jaemin's face. 

(Seriously, he had to uncross his eyes when the boy pulled back.)

“Yes, Chenle,” he coughed. “Putting the food in my stomach yourself kind of defeats the purpose of taste testing though.”

Chenle’s wings stopped fluttering and folded up to his back. He shimmied back up into Jaemin’s space, fidgeting wildly. 

“Oh no! Did I hurt you? I’m so sorry, please, I didn’t mean– I’ve never- h–”

“Hey, hey,” Jaemin caught his hands. “You were just a little enthusiastic, is all. I’ll remind you that I can feed myself, but!” He gave Chenle a look until he relaxed. “If you’re so adamant about feeding me just. Near my… lips... is fine. Aim short, yeah?”

The tinkering laugh Jaemin has only (ill-advisedly) grown fonder of echoed against the big flower petal walls around them.

“You’re so funny, boy!”

“My name is Jaemin.”

Chenle laughed again, not too bothered that he’d forgotten again.

“I’m Chenle!”

“I know,” he mused, watching as Chenle dipped his finger into the icing of the third pastry he had lined up in front of him. 

In reaching out for him, Chenle almosts knocked over the potion bottle near his hip containing the shrinking elixir he’d given Jaemin, that allowed him to, well, shrink down to Chenle’s size and be treated to such a delicious array of desserts. The boy wiped some imaginary sweat off his forehead and muttered an illegally adorable _phew_.

God, Jaemin was fucked.

Under them, the leafy base of Chenle’s flower home rumbled.

“Uh-oh. I got so busy feeding you, I forgot about Sungsung! Don’t worry Sungie~ it’s your turn next! Remind me that I need to drop by the stream soon, please?”

“Oka–” he was cut off by Chenle’s finger again, albeit carefully this time. 

Sunlight was peering in through the ceiling, where the petals thinned out at their ends and didn’t meet each other perfectly. A savory-sweet flavor exploded in Jaemin’s mouth and coated his tongue in its entirety.

“How’s that?” Chenle asked eagerly.

“Mm,” Jaemin hummed grandly. “Tasty!”

“Yay!” he gushed. “Oh, Xiaojun will be _so_ pleased you think so. He _just_ opened his bakery and I’ve been telling and _telling_ him his pastries are absolutely _killer_, but he’s modest, you know?”

Jaemin raised his eyebrows.

“You don’t say.”

“Totally!”

“Well, with a friend like you I’m sure that won’t be the case for long,” said Jaemin.

Chenle’s wings drooped with pleasure. He ducked his head and swatted at the air between them, momentarily too flattered to speak.

“You know just what to say, boy.”

“Only sometimes,” Jaemin said, taking whatever he was given at this point.

“I think you’re a little modest, too,” Chenle lilted, setting the plate he was holding down and sitting back.

The fairy regarded Jaemin out of the corner of his eye. 

If Jaemin hadn’t been paying attention, he would’ve missed it. 

(But he didn’t.)

“There was something I had to do...”

Chenle’s eyes swept over the spread by his knees, like his answer was in one of the dainty cake slices.

“Stream?” Jaemin suggested, pinching a strawberry off a tart and bringing it to his mouth.

The fairy lit up at the reminder.

“Yes! Thank you boy. I need to get some water—a nice drink for us and Sungie. Sugar just sucks all the juices out of you! Haha. Anyways, how about you stay here and keep Sungie company while I go? It’ll be _super_ quick.”

“Sounds good Chenle,” he smiled, smoothing a hand over the space he’d been instructed to sit on.

“Okay! Be back soon! Quick as lightning,” Chenle chirped, and he was sliding out from between two petals, practically diving out headfirst.

Jaemin stood, itching to pace but hesitant to do so. 

He eyed the flower petals around him, the lines that raced down from the ceiling and the walls and joined together on the floor in a swirl. 

_“My friend Chenle, he’s a fairy, but he’s been acting strangely. He won’t hang out with me like we used to, and I see him talking to strangers a lot. I’m really– I’m scared. I need help, Jaemin.”_

Jaemin had been sorting through some papers at his kitchen table when Jisung (the fairy, not the plant) had showed up outside of his cottage distraught, worried sick over his friend. He’d almost turned him away, thinking it was another one of the boy's pranks, but something Jisung said beckoned Jaemin, made him reconsider.

_“Come in, come in. Odd question, but... would you happen to recognize any of these people as the strangers you mentioned?”_

Chenle’s flower rumbled lowly. Jaemin stilled, having unintentionally started pacing.

His hand crept into the inside pocket of his jacket and he pulled out the small notepad he’d taken with him before running out of his house.

_“Y–yeah. Yeah, I’ve seen some of those faces before. In passing. Once. Only- only once each.”_

Ears pricking at the faintest sound of wings beating, Jaemin walked as lightly he could to the petals Chenle had separated when he’d left. 

The fairy was making his way back, using both hands to carry a pail of water easily half his height, dipping precariously in the air at the weight of it. There was something tied to his belt Jaemin hadn’t noticed before. A pouch of some sort.

He paid careful attention from behind the petals as Chenle struggled all the way to the flower. However, instead of coming up to the bud, Chenle descended to where the plant’s stem sunk into the ground.

“How are you liking Jaemin, Sungsung? I think he’s just swell.”

Jaemin’s hand tightened around his notepad.

“He’s been eating a lot of the sweets. He’s basically a sweet himself at this point, haha!”

_“But if he’s– he has to be hexed, right? Chenle would never do that.”_

Down below, Chenle scooped some water onto the ground for Sungie before wiping his hands on his shirt and opening his pouch. He brandished the knife from inside gingerly, tossing it in the air and catching it by the handle.

The notepad was open to the last page he had written on.

_Young fairy suspected of luring and feeding humans to carnivorous plant. Unsure if both fairy and plant are being influenced by a third party or are actively conspiring in the murders. Possible lead. Investigating._

“I think I’m liking him a little too much. I even flew away to give him the chance to escape! Left it up to chance, you know?” 

Blood rushed past Jaemin’s ears.

“Did he leave, Sungie?”

He should probably go, Jaemin decided. There was no doubt in his mind Chenle was responsible for the string of disappearances he’s been tracking for weeks, but he was too unprepared to apprehend him now. 

After all, one couldn't do much when being digested into… chlorophyll? 

He didn’t actually know how the whole carnivorous plant thing worked but he did not want to find out. Not today, and not like this.

It would’ve been smart to leave when Chenle had gone to the stream. Chenle had _intended_ it that way. And that was interesting, wasn’t it?

Jaemin couldn’t help but think as he hurried to cross the inside of the flower—hopefully exiting out of the opposite side would buy him some time—that it was odd Chenle thought of letting him escape. Did that mean he really _was_ hexed? The real Chenle buried somewhere under all of this? 

Or, more morbidly, did it mean Chenle liked to play with his food?

He shuddered at the thought, mind racing as he slid the petal in front of him to the side, ready to make a big leap and run.

Before him, Chenle hovered in the air, knife hanging idly from his fingers. At the sight of Jaemin, he pouted.

“Aw. Where are you going? We’re not done with our snacks!”

Jaemin dropped his notepad, feet slipping against the smooth petals as he scrambled backwards. Sungie shook under him, shifting slightly. He couldn’t see the swirl in the middle of the flower’s floor but he would bet all of his money that it was unwinding, opening, waiting for him to fall in.

_God_, Jaemin was _fucked_.

**Author's Note:**

> none of my wips knew this would be worked on and posted tonight, and neither did I. originally written for a speedwrite but I liked the concept so much I added to it a lil u___u
> 
> lmk if you enjoyed! thank you for reading~
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/itsmclovinbot) & [cc](https://curiouscat.me/lexiconartist)


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